Await The Dawn Still Aimed at Breeders Cup Classic
Despite York Flop
There have been many great
performances for flat horse racing
fans to admire this season, particularly those from Frankel, the 1000
Guineas winner Blue Bunting and King George winner, Nathaniel. All three
look set to go on to bigger and better things but one other horse who was
expected to be up there with them is the Aidan O達rien trained Await The
Dawn, that was of course until he flopped when the odds favourite to win the
Group One Juddmonte International Stakes at the York Ebor meeting last week.
Prior to that race, Await The Dawn
had been almost gone "under the radar" this season, particularly after
landing the Group Two Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, a performance
that was simply breathtaking with trainer O達rien and jockey Ryan Moore both
suggesting that he could be a Breeder痴 Cup Classic winner. O達rien believed
that the four year old Colt was one of his stable stars with many suggesting
he was favoured over the highly thought of So You Think, winner of the Group
One Eclipse Stakes in July.
He was made the favourite to win the
International Stakes based on his two wins as a three year old and two wins
this season together with his growing reputation. The International did turn
out to be a great race but the first two home Twice Over and Midday were
both from the stable of Sir Henry Cecil and they finished five lengths clear
of Await The Dawn who was back in third place.
After the race,
O達rien confirmed that he was
perplexed at Await The Dawn's run, stating that he thought it was his lack
of a recent run that cost the son of Giants Causeway the race but since then
it was discovered that he was suffering with a high temperature and was
quite poorly by the time he had got back home.
O達rien could have possibly
mentioned as well that Await The Dawn was running in a Group One race for
the first time and he was up against two multiple Group One winners in Twice
Over and Midday. No matter how impressive his Hardwicke Stakes victory had
been he was clearly up against top opposition.
The word from Ballydoyle now is that
the four year old is over his problems and will be back in training over the
next few days. The
Breeders Cup Classic. remains his target, for which he is now the 10/1
second favourite and will have one more run before going over to the States.
The current favourite for the
feature race of the two day Breeders Cup meeting is the big improving Bob
Baffert trained Coil, son of the multiple Grade One and 2001 Belmont Stakes
winner, Point Given. Coil was last seen winning the prestigious Grade One
Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park defeating a high class field in the
progress which included this year痴 winner of the Preakness Stakes,
Shackleford and is the pick of American runners to land the $5 million race.